"Ray" the movie - 1950s Double Stack Intermodal?

[brothaslide]

There is a scene in the movie Ray which is from the early 1950s. He and his band are driving in a truck under a train bridge while a train is rolling overhead. The only thing is that the train is a modern Double Stack intermodal.

The movie was excellent!!!

Sean

[railman]

Caught by a railfan! Great observation, brothaslide.

[cspmo]

The same thing was in the movie ,Oliver Stone"JFK"

[Big_Boy_4005]

There are some people in Hollywood that aren't doing their homework. On the other hand, finding vintage trains is impossible on real working railroads. It is much easier to find vintage automobiles to fill the streets.

They could have at least found a train with box cars in it.

[railman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

There are some people in Hollywood that aren't doing their homework. On the other hand, finding vintage trains is impossible on real working railroads. It is much easier to find vintage automobiles to fill the streets.

They could have at least found a train with box cars in it.

yeah, if you think about it, there aren't many old boxcars lying around that can be cut together to make a real looking train without a great deal of expense for such a small scene...maybe they thought people wouldn't notice. But not on trains.com![;)]

[twhite]

Hollywood has never been one for much railroad authenticity. All you have to do is look at some of the older films from the '40's and '50's. Even Alfred Hitchcock in "Strangers on a Train" has the "Daylight" pulling into a station on the East Coast, where the film is presumably set. Sierra Railroad #3 was built by Rogers in 1895, yet it was constantly used in westerns set in the 1860's. About the most authentic use of rolling stock I've seen is a 1939 western called UNION PACIFIC which used old 1870's Virginia and Truckee locos and stock--at least they were relatively close (ten years) to the actual time period of the film. When you see scenes like this in a movie, all you can do is shrug your shoulders and say, "Oh, well--" Hollywood doesn't really care. A train is a train is a train--
Tom

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by railman

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

There are some people in Hollywood that aren't doing their homework. On the other hand, finding vintage trains is impossible on real working railroads. It is much easier to find vintage automobiles to fill the streets.

They could have at least found a train with box cars in it.

yeah, if you think about it, there aren't many old boxcars lying around that can be cut together to make a real looking train without a great deal of expense for such a small scene...maybe they thought people wouldn't notice. But not on trains.com![;)]

I don't think it would have been too hard to find a manifest train with mixed cars.

Some of the oldest equipment riding the rails today is about 40 years old. There aren't too many 40 foot box cars left. Brakewheel requirements forced most of them into retirement in the 60's,and they were replaced by 50' and longer.

Now if Ray had been a railroad man, maybe they would have at least paid a little more attention to that kind of detail.[:p][;)]

[Robert Langford]

kEver noticed the "con trails" from jets in the skys in some of the old western movies?
If not, look next time you watch one of AMC.
Bob

[railman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Robert Langford

kEver noticed the "con trails" from jets in the skys in some of the old western movies?
If not, look next time you watch one of AMC.
Bob

I will be watching the next time I'm watching some of the westerns.

[Anonymous]

I watched a old rail movie about Train 19, I forgot the title. It was about a brutal conductor.. That equitment looked authetic enough to me.

[twhite]

Highiron--you're probably thinking about the film "Emperor of The North Pole" with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine as the sadistic conductor. It was filmed on a short line in Oregon, and used pretty much Depression-era equipment--the film took place in the 1930's. Luckily, that particular shortline is a railroad that collects museum-quality equipment and runs it for tourists. It's one of the rare occasions where Hollywood actually took note of what period trains were supposed to look like. It's also due to the fact that Robert Aldrich, the director, was also a railroad buff.
Tom

[rrinker]

There are some more subtle ones too. In the 1960 movie "From the Terrace" with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Reading T-1 #2124 is used. The scene is supposed to be in Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, but the T-1 couldn't run there, so they used CNJ's Jersey City terminal instead.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

Ive notice Hollywood doesnt care about accuracy on train for years now, ever since White Christmas. Trains from NYC to Pine Tree Vermont, pulled by SP and SF F units........yeeah right!!!

[DSchmitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by twhite

Highiron--you're probably thinking about the film "Emperor of The North Pole" with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine as the sadistic conductor. It was filmed on a short line in Oregon, and used pretty much Depression-era equipment--the film took place in the 1930's. Luckily, that particular shortline is a railroad that collects museum-quality equipment and runs it for tourists. It's one of the rare occasions where Hollywood actually took note of what period trains were supposed to look like. It's also due to the fact that Robert Aldrich, the director, was also a railroad buff.
Tom

You are probably right except the movie was "Emperor of the North". It is available from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000JBJK/ref%3Dpd%5Fsl%5Faw%5Falx-jeb-6-1%5Fvideo%5F2158122%5F1/002-8631773-7014450 [:)]

[twhite]

DSchmitt. Right you are. Movie was "Emperor of the North," novel it was based on was "Emperor of the North Pole." Got the two mixed up. Thanks for the info. By the way, movie buffs, if you want to see a film that's REALLY affectionate--and authentic--about a locomotive, try and catch an old 20th Century Fox movie called "A Ticket to Tomahawk" starring Dan Dailey. Cute movie, the locomotive in it is a former RGS 4-6-0 that's all decked out in 1870's finery as the "Emma Sweeny". The director, Richard Sales, was a well-known train buff and model railroader back in the 1950's. Worth watching. I think it's on video, it sometimes shows up on the Fox Movie Channel.
Tom

[willy6]

Under Siege part 2,Steven Seagal movie was all trains. The train looked real but the story was a little.........................far fetched.

[twhite]

Caught "Under Siege 2" Amtrak equipment pulled by old what looked to be Alco diesels. Oh, well--the Colorado scenery was nice. Neat head-on collision on a trestle, too. For a wild train-wreck, check out the last part of "Greatest Show On Earth", a Cecil B. deMille groaner from the '50's. One part of a circus train rams into the back of another, cars and locomotives all OVER the place! Models, of course. Funny thing, the loco pulling the first part of the train is a CRI&P Hudson. I don't ever remember the Rock Island having Hudsons on its roster, do you? Ah, Hollywood! However, if you want to watch a WHOPPER of a movie about trains, check out THE TRAIN from the 1960's. All about the French Resistance trying to stop a train of art from being smuggled to Germany during WWII. It's on DVD and it's a stunner! No models. Just full-scale French trains being whacked around.
Tom
Tom

[Anonymous]

Emperor of the North it is.. I am a-fixing to catch it again and record it this time.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else seen "Atomic Train" - one character shouting "The throttle's stuck" when the lever is all the way forward i.e. closed! Then add the train running away as a result of the air line being disconnected - wouldn't this tend to result in the brakes coming on?

I think it's the same type of mistakes as in the film "Titanic" - film makers thinking that trains (and ships) are operated in the same way as road vehicles, and that the public won't be able to spot the errors. Sad really, they obviously think making films realistic will be too complex for audiences!

[Anonymous]

Hollywood does NOT acuratelly portray trains.

For example, Train Robbers did NOT ride horse back and then stop the train like you see in some western movies.[:(!] Why doesn't Hollywood care?[V][B)]

[railman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by modelrailroader71

Hollywood does NOT acuratelly portray trains.

For example, Train Robbers did NOT ride horse back and then stop the train like you see in some western movies.[:(!] Why doesn't Hollywood care?[V][B)]

because for some reason, that's the idea people have in their heads about how things "happen." Rather than work to change that, the movies play to the LCD and make money.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by twhite

Caught "Under Siege 2" Amtrak equipment pulled by old what looked to be Alco diesels.

Actually the locos were a GP30 and a GP7 or 9 (Couldn't really tell) I presume they were borrowed from the Rio Grande.

James

[railman]

US2, that got corny in the end...I liked the first one aboard the battleship Missouri.

[trainfan1221]

This always a fun topic that we have discussed before. Another movie is the one with Denzel Washington, about an army investigation. Can't think of the name right now to save my life. Anyway, at one point the guy is running away at the end and a train is shown moving in front of him. Although only the fuel tank is seen, it is clearly an EMD from 1966 on. Movie was supposed to take place I believe in the 40s.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by railman

QUOTE: Originally posted by Robert Langford

kEver noticed the "con trails" from jets in the skys in some of the old western movies?
If not, look next time you watch one of AMC.
Bob

I will be watching the next time I'm watching some of the westerns.

And in that same vein, if you watch the early Spielberg cult movie "1941" (which was a big hit in Europe but never really made it in the States), take a close look during the scene where "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell and entourage pull up on the tarmac for the news conference among all the "new" old warbirds at Long Beach. This is just before Loomis gets the girl in the B-17 and drops the bomb on the apron. Sitting there, pretty as a picture in the background across the field, is a white lease Boeing 727 (top secret war project, probably!)[(-D]

On the other end of the spectrum "The Newton Boys" got it almost right, using relettered T&NO 786 and a repainted RPO for the train robbery scene. At least they were the right era, and they stuck up the right car.

[Anonymous]

"The Train" with Burt Lancaster was awesome! as was Von Ryan's Express, though I think the story line was considerably weeker, personally.

In Enemy At The Gates, a movie inspired by the story of a really good Soviet Sniper during WWII, had a scene where soldiers were being loaded on to trains in the beginning. They used German steam engines! okay, I know the Russians inherited several German Class 52's after the war, but it still doesn't look quite right to me. Otherwise, the movie was pretty decent.

Alvie,

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drephpe

And in that same vein, if you watch the early Spielberg cult movie "1941" (which was a big hit in Europe but never really made it in the States), take a close look during the scene where "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell and entourage pull up on the tarmac for the news conference among all the "new" old warbirds at Long Beach. This is just before Loomis gets the girl in the B-17 and drops the bomb on the apron. Sitting there, pretty as a picture in the background across the field, is a white lease Boeing 727 (top secret war project, probably!)[(-D]

Or in Pearl Harbor, the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Newport-class LSTs, and USS Missouri...not only too modern to stand in as USN ships in 1941, but they all sported their 1980s and 1990s vintage radar globes and cruise missile tubes (except for the Newports)..

Oh wait, they're Spruance-class ships and they have ASROC launchers.

[Anonymous]

I can think of some other examples, too. I have seen westerns set in the Civil War with trains that have knuckle couplers. I can also remember the movie "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss", a rather dumb comedy about a family going on a vacation in the 1950's. There was a scene with the characters waiting at a very modern looking railroad crossing for a train that had a bright green Burlington Northern extended-vision caboose on the end!

Sometimes, though, there are certain factors that are beyond the filmmakers' control. In the movie "Silver Streak", the train used is a CP Rail passenger train with decals for "Amroad" put over the logos. Some people might scoff at this, but the production company in charge of the movie approached Amtrak initially, but they refused to let them film on one of their trains. The movie is actually very good as far as technical accuracy goes, though.

Another example simmilar to this is "Runaway Train." The movie takes place in Alaska and was filmed on the Alaska Railroad, but the ARR wouldn't let their name or logo appear anywhere in the film. If you look very closely at some parts of the set, you can see the name "Alaska and Eastern". As far as technical accuracy goes, though, there is very little in this film. The train (a GP40, an F7 and two high-hood GP7's) becomes a runaway because the engineer has a heart attack and tries to stop the train, but the power of the wheels burns the brake shoes off. In one scene, a freight train is pulling into a siding to get out of the way when the runaway comes along and smashes it's caboose just as it's about to make it onto the siding...and keeps on going! If the switch was set for the freight to go onto the siding and against the mainline, wouldn't the runaway train have derailed when it hit it? There are many other things, but I'll stop there. Despite these facts, I actually like this movie.

Of course we can point out all the incorrect train scenes there are in movies, but have you ever thought about some of the completely implausible stuff there must be that we don't notice in movies?

[railman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater

I

Another example simmilar to this is "Runaway Train." The movie takes place in Alaska and was filmed on the Alaska Railroad, but the ARR wouldn't let their name or logo appear anywhere in the film. If you look very closely at some parts of the set, you can see the name "Alaska and Eastern". As far as technical accuracy goes, though, there is very little in this film. The train (a GP40, an F7 and two high-hood GP7's) becomes a runaway because the engineer has a heart attack and tries to stop the train, but the power of the wheels burns the brake shoes off. In one scene, a freight train is pulling into a siding to get out of the way when the runaway comes along and smashes it's caboose just as it's about to make it onto the siding...and keeps on going! If the switch was set for the freight to go onto the siding and against the mainline, wouldn't the runaway train have derailed when it hit it? There are many other things, but I'll stop there. Despite these facts, I actually like this movie.

Of course we can point out all the incorrect train scenes there are in movies, but have you ever thought about some of the completely implausible stuff there must be that we don't notice in movies?

The movie was okay until the end (sorry, it's been on video, so I'm not ruining this for anybody) but when the train just dissapears into the endless railroad and snow I was sitting there going, "That's it?"[8D]

[GerFust]

I was watching the movie "Annie" this week with my kids. It is set in 1929 or so. Interesting, I saw a boxcar with steel ends (couldn't see the whole care). Were there steel boxcars around back then?

-Jer